Programme organised by the School of Management, taught in German, selection process for foreign applicants.

You can apply directly for enrolment in the Master's programme if you hold or will have obtained one of the following degrees from a recognised Swiss university before the start date of your programme at the University of St.Gallen:

Bachelor's degree with a major at least partly similar to Business administration awarded by a Swiss university;

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (similar major) from a Swiss university of applied sciences with a minimum average grade of 5.00 in the degree certificate;

consecutive Master's degree from a Swiss university in another discipline.
Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes must have been completed in the same discipline (consecutively) and amount to at least 270 ECTS credits points together.

Depending on how relevant the major of your previous degree is to Business Administration, the extent of the additional requirement for the HSG Master's degree programme may vary. We differentiate between Bachelor's degrees with majors similar and partly similar to Business Administration.

Degree with a major similar to Business Administration:
90 ECTS credit points in three of the core subjects (Business Administration, Economics, Law and Mathematics/Statistics) including at least 45 ECTS credit points in Business Administration

Degree with a major partly similar to Business Administration:
60 ECTS credit points in two of the core subjects (Business Administration, Economics and Law) including at least 30 ECTS credit points in Business Administration and at least 15 ECTS credit points in Economics or Law, and additionally at least 6 ECTS credit points in Mathematics/Statistics.

If you have any questions on degree recognition or equivalence, please do not hesitate to contact the Admissions and Crediting Office for further help.

Upon admission, entry requirements may be requested. Depending on your previous degree, you will have to complete an integration week or the Master's preparatory level before you can start the Master's degree programme.

Applicants with a university Bachelor's degree in a similar discipline must successfully complete the integration week before this degree programme starts. The integration week offers an integrative overview of the graduate studies at the University of St.Gallen. Two dates are available: End of May (calendar week 22) and beginning of September (calendar week 36). The integration week can be repeated once. To be able to participate you must register on time.

The integration week curriculum combines the following modules:

Financial Management

Business Law

Business Administration (St.Gallen's Management Model and Marketing)

Economics (Microeconomics)

Contextual Studies (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The lectures in the integration week aim to deepen the study matter you have gone through in self-study and prepare you for the subsequent examinations you need to sit. To give you an idea of what to expect, here is an example of the timetable and the Course Factsheet for the integration week.

You will need to go through the study matter yourself to ensure your integration week is successful. Prepare yourself for the integration week in good time using the module descriptions, the recommended literature and the lecture notes.

Together with the admissions letter we will send you information on how to register for the integration week and how to access the lecture notes.

Applicants with one of the following degrees must pass the Master's preparatory level:

university of applied sciences degree in Business Administration

Bachelor's degree in a partially similar subject

consecutive Master's degree in a different subject

You will first be registered in the Master's preparatory level. Only when you have successfully met the requirements of the Master's preparatory level, can you take courses at Master's level. It is not possible to transfer external credits.

All students must take two language courses (foreign languages) in addition to their Master’s degree course to successfully complete their Master's degree programme. Crediting is possible during your Master's studies according to the "fact sheet concerning language requirements".

All students must provide evidence of sufficient accounting knowledge to successfully complete their Master's degree programme.

If you have already acquired sufficient knowledge of accounting during your studies, the evidence can be credited during the admission process. If this evidence is missing at the time of admission, the accountancy examination has to be taken at the University of St.Gallen.

Application

The degree programme starts in the autumn semester. The application is made online. The application fee is CHF 250.

Degree documents, if available. Otherwise current official transcripts from each university attended (including exchange programmes and transcripts from unfinished degree programmes). The current transcript must show at least 120 ECTS credit points for courses taken so that we can process your application.

Only one file can be uploaded per bullet point. You can use online tools such as online2pdf.com to create PDF files or to combine several pages into one PDF file. Make sure the files you send to us are legible so that we can process your application without delay.

Swiss citizens need their Swiss social insurance number (AHV number) for the application. If you do not know your national insurance number, please order a duplicate of your insurance certificate from the Swiss Central Compensation Office in good time.

The Admissions and Crediting Office checks your personal data and your electronically submitted documents. You will hear from us no later than six weeks following your completion of the online application.

Please log into your user account regularly to check the status of your application. If we need further information or documents, we will inform you directly via your account’s status overview page. Additionally, you will be requested by email to log into your user account.

If the decision is positive, you will receive the Letter of Admission along with details on your programme-specific additional requirements in your “Compass Mailbox”. Please find the link to your Mailbox in the Online-Application user account at the top right of your status overview page. You can access your Mailbox using your Online-Application log-in data.

Mid-July we will upload the semester fee invoice to your Compass Mailbox. At the beginning of August we will send you more information on course selection (Bidding), the compulsory introductory Kick-off Days, as well as the HSG Student Guide and Arrival Guide.

Your admission is conditional until you submit all the necessary documents. You may post a certified copy of your degree certificate to us by no later than the start of the programme (calendar week 38). Please do not send any original copies in the post!

If you do not have your degree certificate by the time the degree programme starts, you have to submit confirmation by the end of calendar week 38 that you graduated from your university. The confirmation of graduation must clearly show that you have all of the course work required for graduation. The confirmation must also indicate when your university is going to issue your final degree certificate. Please note that you must also submit confirmation that you are no longer registered as a student there.

As soon as you have presented all the necessary documents, your admission is unconditional. We will send you a confirmation email.

If you have one of the following degrees from a recognised university or complete one before the degree programme starts, then you can apply for the Master's programme:

University Bachelor's degree with a major at least partly similar to Business Administration

A Bachelor's business degree (similar major) from a recognised university of applied sciences (Fachhochschule) with a minimum average grade of 5.00 (Swiss grading system) or 2.00 (German or Austrian grading system) in the degree certificate.

Consecutive university Master's degree in another discipline
Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes must have been completed in the same discipline (consecutively) and amount to least 270 ECTS Credits together.

Your degree programme will be recognised if the following criteria are fulfilled:

Your final degree certificate was awarded by a institution of higher education which is recognised in the country where you attended the course.

You have completed at least 80% of your course work at a recognised or accredited institution of higher education.

You have completed at least half of the course work on site at the institution of higher education awarding the degree.

You fulfil the minimum requirements for admission to the Master's degree programme at your home institution of higher education.

Depending on how relevant the major of your previous degree is to Business Administration, the extent of the additional requirement for the HSG Master's degree programme may vary. We differentiate between Bachelor's degrees with majors similar and partly similar to Business Administration.

Degree with a major similar to Business Administration:
90 ECTS credit points in three of the core subjects (Business Administration, Economics, Law and Mathematics/Statistics) including at least 45 ECTS credit points in Business Administration

Degree with a major partly similar to Business Administration:
60 ECTS credit points in two of the core subjects (Business Administration, Economics and Law) including at least 30 ECTS credit points in Business Administration and at least 15 ECTS credit points in Economics or Law, and additionally at least 6 ECTS credit points in Mathematics/Statistics.

If you have any questions on recognised degrees or degrees in similar subjects, please do not hesitate to contact the team at the Admissions and Crediting Office who will be happy to help you.

The number of university places for foreign applicants is limited by law. As the number of applications is higher than the number of places available, foreign student applicants are admitted via a selection process. The following criteria will be assessed in the selection process:

average grade

study qualification test (optional)

university and curriculum of the degree programme

extracurricular activities and intercultural mobility

letter of motivation

The Admission Committee conducts three admission rounds between October and March. All complete applications that have been submitted on time are assessed and a decision is made on the admission.

Admission rounds:
First admission round: 1 October–30 November / Decision: by 21 December
Second admission round: 1 December–31 January / Decision: by 22 February
Third admission round: 1 February–31 March / Decision: by 30 April

(Swiss or Liechtenstein citizens, applicants with a Swiss permanent residence permit C and applicants with a Swiss school leaving certificate or a Swiss university degree can apply directly for enrolment in the Master's degree programme, provided that they fulfil the formal admission regulations.)

Programme-specific entry and additional requirements

Upon admission, entry requirements may be requested. Depending on your previous degree, you will have to complete an integration week or the Master's preparatory level before you can start the Master's degree programme.

Applicants with a university Bachelor's degree in a similar discipline must successfully complete the integration week before this degree programme starts. The integration week offers an integrative overview of the graduate studies at the University of St.Gallen. Two dates are available: End of May (calendar week 22) and beginning of September (calendar week 36). The integration week can be repeated once. To be able to participate you must register on time.

The integration week curriculum combines the following modules:

Financial Management

Business Law

Business Administration (St.Gallen's Management Model and Marketing)

Economics (Microeconomics)

Contextual Studies (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The lectures in the integration week aim to deepen the study matter you have gone through in self-study and prepare you for the subsequent examinations you need to sit. To give you an idea of what to expect, here is an example of the timetable and the Course Factsheet for the integration week.

You will need to go through the study matter yourself to ensure your integration week is successful. Prepare yourself for the integration week in good time using the module descriptions, the recommended literature and the lecture notes.

Together with the admissions letter we will send you information on how to register for the integration week and how to access the lecture notes.

Applicants with one of the following degrees must pass the Master's preparatory level:

university of applied sciences degree in Business Administration

Bachelor's degree in a partially similar subject

consecutive Master's degree in a different subject

You will first be registered in the Master's preparatory level. Only when you have successfully met the requirements of the Master's preparatory level, can you take courses at Master's level. It is not possible to transfer external credits.

All students must take two language courses (foreign languages) in addition to their Master’s degree course to successfully complete their Master's degree programme. Crediting is possible during your Master's studies according to the "fact sheet concerning language requirements".

All students must provide evidence of sufficient accounting knowledge to successfully complete their Master's degree programme.

If you have already acquired sufficient knowledge of accounting during your studies, the evidence can be credited during the admission process. If this evidence is missing at the time of admission, the accountancy examination has to be taken at the University of St.Gallen.

Application

The degree programme starts in the autumn semester. The application is made online. The application fee is CHF 250.

Degree documents, if available. Otherwise current official transcripts from each university attended (including exchange programmes and transcripts from unfinished degree programmes). The current transcript must show at least 120 ECTS credit points for courses taken so that we can process your application. In the case of double degree programmes or "joint degrees", transcripts from each attended university including explanatory notes on the course programme must be submitted.

If any of the documents are not issued in German, French, Italian or English, you must also submit a certified translation of the document in German or English. Please observe our guidelines "Certified documents and translations".

Only one file can be uploaded per bullet point. You can use online tools such as online2pdf.com to create PDF files or to combine several pages into one PDF file. Make sure the files you send to us are legible so that we can process your application without delay.

Swiss citizens need their Swiss social insurance number (AHV number) for the application. If you do not know your national insurance number, please order a duplicate of your insurance certificate from the Swiss Central Compensation Office in good time.

The Admissions and Crediting Office checks your personal data and your electronically submitted documents. If your application is complete and fulfils the formal admission requirements, it is forwarded to the Admissions Committee.
Please log into your user account regularly to check the status of your application. If we need further information or documents, we will inform you directly via your account’s status overview page.

If the Admissions Committee makes a positive decision, you will receive the Letter of Admission along with details on your programme-specific additional requirements as well as the semester fee invoice in your electronic mailbox (Compass Mailbox). Please find the link to your Compass Mailbox in the Online-Application user account at the top right of your status page. You can access your mailbox using your Online-Application log-in data.

Along with the Letter of Admission you also receive a form to confirm your place on your chosen programme. Your place will be confirmed as soon as we receive your completed confirmation form, and the semester invoice amount is credited to our account on time. As a rule, you will have two to three weeks for confirming your participation in the chosen programme of study.

Your admission is conditional until you submit all the necessary documents. If you have to submit original copies of your documents as per the letter of admission, please submit them to the Admissions Office in person no later than the start of the degree programme (calendar week 38). Certified documents can be posted to us in due time. Please do not send any original copies in the post!

As soon as you have presented all the necessary documents, your admission is unconditional. We will send you a confirmation email. Should you not be able to submit the necessary degree documents before the degree programme starts (calendar week 38), we will not be able to admit you.

The Admissions and Crediting Office checks your personal data and your electronically submitted documents. You will hear from us no later than six weeks following your completion of the online application.

Please log into your user account regularly to check the status of your application. If we need further information or documents, we will inform you directly via your account’s status overview page. Additionally, you will be requested by email to log into your user account.

If the decision is positive, you will receive the Letter of Admission along with details on your programme-specific additional requirements in your “Compass Mailbox”. Please find the link to your Mailbox in the Online-Application user account at the top right of your status overview page. You can access your Mailbox using your Online-Application log-in data.

Mid-July we will upload the semester fee invoice to your Compass Mailbox. At the beginning of August we will send you more information on course selection (Bidding), the compulsory introductory Kick-off Days, as well as the HSG Student Guide and Arrival Guide.

Your admission is conditional until you submit all the necessary documents. If you have to submit original copies of your documents as per the letter of admission, please submit them to the Admissions Office in person no later than the start of the degree programme (calendar week 38). Certified documents can be posted to us in due time. Please do not send any original copies in the post!

As soon as you have presented all the necessary documents, your admission is unconditional. We will send you a confirmation email. Should you not be able to submit the necessary degree documents before the degree programme starts (calendar week 38), we will not be able to admit you.